"Are you building a house for Mrs. Ladybug?" Buster Bumblebee inquired.
"No!" said the Carpenter. "We couldn't agree. She wanted me to work twelve hours a day. And I wanted to work twenty-four. I told her I must have some time to rest. But she couldn't see things as I did."
Buster Bumblebee was puzzled.
"I don't understand," he said.
The Carpenter kindly made matters clear to him.
"I rest only when I'm working," he explained.
XXII
MRS. LADYBUG LEAVES
The Carpenter Bee, who lived in the big poplar by the brook, wasn't building a house for Mrs. Ladybug. That skillful woodworker hadn't been able to agree with her—so he told Buster Bumblebee. Furthermore, he knew nothing of Mrs. Ladybug's present plans as to where she was going to spend the winter.
Nor did anybody else. It was all a great mystery. And Mrs. Ladybug seemed to enjoy it far more than her neighbors did. She was the only person that could have solved it for them. And she wouldn't.